Apologies to BK. You were right about gay marriages.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben should take this message to heart, and stop trying to tell himself he's straight.

Right.

Don't you guys ever get tired of projection?

[fetustoast]

Do you ever get get tired of trying to ram your dogma and lies down our throats?

[notyoueither]

'We' call it marriage. You do not have to see gays wed in your church. Get over it.

Actually, you've been trying damn hard to force us to.

Bull****. Nobody serious is suggesting clergy or churches be forced to perform gay marriages.

How about leaving us alone and not trying to book receptions/etc? That would be nice.

Halls offered for public rental need to conform to legal obligations. If you want a hall that can be kept entirely private for the sole use of your congregation, pay for it entirely yourselves and do not try to make ends meet through commercial operations.

How about leaving our Catholic schools be as well?

Pay for a school entirely on your own dime. You'll need to obey employment laws though.

You can call it marriage, sure. You can call it whatever you want to call it. Doesn't make it so. You can call an elephant a mouse and vice versa too. Reality says something different though.

I find statements of fact about reality based on Catholic dogma to be exceedingly humourous.

Don't fall over the edge, Ben.

[MikeH]

Hmm. Interesting, that's clarified my thinking a bit. I might well go as far as to say that a venue licensed to perform weddings ought to correspond to the countries laws of non discrimination. Which really does come back to Robert Plomp's point that the legal marriage should be non religious and just the blessing at the church.

Many CofE churches already bless same sex marriages ('civil partnerships') here in the UK, and they have openly gay clergy although it's still controversial.

CofE is like a million times more modern and less retarded than the catholic church in it's interpretation of the bible though.

[Nikolai]

Bull****. Nobody serious is suggesting clergy or churches be forced to perform gay marriages.

Actually, that's what the establishment is trying to force the church to do. The Norwegian church is state owned, unfortunately, and the politicians wants everybody to feel at home and do whatever they please there.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well when the church is state owned, that's quite a bit different, isn't it?

[Nikolai]

Not really. Freedom of religion should always apply.

[giblets]

Not really. Freedom of religion should always apply.

You always have the option of attending a different church. Letting gay people use the state church to get married won't affect your religious freedom.

[Imran Siddiqui]

When the Church is state owned the Church has no right to demand the state not interfere. After all, its part of the state.

[Ben Kenobi]

Pay for a school entirely on your own dime. You'll need to obey employment laws though.

Exempt us from school taxes, and we'll be more than happy to build our own schools, and hire our own teachers, and the state won't have to do a thing.

Think we can run pretty damn good schools at 9089 per student?

Deal?

Until then, fund the Catholic schools with public funds collected from us, and let us run them, and stop trying to force homosexuality down our throats.

[DaShi]

stop trying to force homosexuality down our throats.

Is this meant to be ironic?

[David Floyd]

Actually, that's what the establishment is trying to force the church to do. The Norwegian church is state owned, unfortunately, and the politicians wants everybody to feel at home and do whatever they please there.

Which is a pretty strong argument for the First Amendment to the US Constitution, isn't it?

BK,

Quick points. I know we don't generally agree, but anywho...

Think we can run pretty damn good schools at 9089 per student?

Depends on the definition. From a book learning perspective, the answer is obviously "yes", although you should know that it has nothing to do with the money and more to do with the parents/home life.

However, if the school is teaching Young Earth Creationism - or, frankly, anything other than Darwinian evolution - in a science class, then no, I would not classify it is a solid educational experience, both on a factual basis and a scientific theory basis.

[Barnabas]

Gay marriage is bad

1) There is no human right to change the dictionary.

Marriage has always been an issue between a man (or many men) and a woman (or many women).
Even in societies which were very tolerant of homosexuality, like ancient gayreece or China there was no gay marriage and men were expected to eventually marry women and have offspring.
Gay marriage is a historical novelty. The ninja turtles are older than gay marriage.
Gays have no right to that word. They are a creative bunch as I found out thanks to the tv show Queer Eye, they should invent a new word for their unions, and avoid the word marriage.

2) They wan't to adopt little kids. That is a social experiment with humans who are too young to decide for themselves if they want to partake in such experiments.

3) Polygamy will be legalized all over the west whithin the next 20 years because of Gay Marriage. after all, if they are all adults, and love each other, and it isn't a historical novelty like gay marriage, so, why not? I hope a Bedouin marries 8 adopted daughters of homosexuals

[loinburger]

What's wrong with polygamy? I mean hell, it's even got biblical support behind it.

[Ben Kenobi]

Depends on the definition. From a book learning perspective, the answer is obviously "yes", although you should know that it has nothing to do with the money and more to do with the parents/home life.

Public schools have an abysmal record at teaching literacy and numeracy, which frankly should be their chief concern. Catholic schools have routinely posted much better numbers whenever they can be assessed.

I'd be thrilled if the government got out of the education business altogether and let the Church run their schools. Then parents can make their own choice as to where to send their kid. Homeschool, private school or Catholic school?